14-Year-old believes marijuana use is ok

I wanted to share with you a response from a blog that I wrote for the mommy blog A Mothers Circle by a 14-year-old who didn’t agree with me on how parents could detect marijuana use among their teen. Below is his response and then my follow-up. What is your opinion? We would love to know.

Teens Response:

Hello I am a 14 year old boy. I’ve smoked pot for over two years now. All of these “signs” are completely untrue, those are the stereotypes of stoners. As teens mature, most of these things happen whether the teen is smoking pot or not. Its called puberty, and so your going to notice some changes. We spend time away from the house because that’s what teens do. We especially aren’t going to stay around if your overly suspicious. Weed isn’t the one making that happen. I have many friends who fit those descriptions perfectly, and they don’t smoke pot. Its part of human life. Ya, if you find a pipe or bong in their room, you’ve pretty much caught them red handed and you should talk to them. But you can’t notice your kid is smoking pot unless they are high right in front of you. Also pot doesn’t give you red eyes usually. You have to smoke a ton of it, and by that time you’d be so high it would be obvious by behavior. And academically, I read with a lexile of 1700, which is above collage level. I am doing 10th grade math. I’m not trying to convince you pot isn’t bad, but at least learn what the REAL signs are before accusing your child.

Inspirations for Youth Response:

Thanks for your reply to our guest blog post. You are definitely correct in your assertion that many of these signs are not set in stone and can be the result of other underlying issues as well such as puberty. But when collectively grouped together we call this clustering and if this should occur, there is no harm in parents becoming more observant or practice some of the actions that I have indicated in the blog.

One important issue that you must understand is the deleterious effects of marijuana use on adolescents such as yourself.

I am overjoyed that you have taken the time to form a well thought of response. I believe the most important part of this issue is that we are having a healthy dialogue. Thanks again for reaching out.